The Let's Play Archive

Part 22

randombattle posted:

What went so wrong during development that they had to cut out 90% of the game?

Well imagine it this way: you've got a graphics company who really only has experience creating trailers and boxart, a company whose job is to make things look good so you'll buy it. Then you create a subdivision of that for a video game with a really small team that probably has little experience in the field to start with (and probably even less with the engine), led by a guy like Donald Mustard who has almost too many ideas, and who states repeatedly that he wants to basically revolutionize the way people experience video games and video game stories. He sets up their first project (a huge one already) as part one of three, with a tie to a big-name author, and he wants to have all these fairly difficult features like psychic powers, physics, bullet time, etc., etc., etc.

That would be a pretty tough project even for big development team. It's actually pretty amazing how much of the time the game works in the end, because really all the really big things they wanted work, and work pretty well. It's just all the other big things they promised that fell through. That being said, though, I think some of the promo stuff they showed they probably had not even implemented in the game in any capacity yet, and again I think it was to generate excitement, because as a CG company, that was their job.

Barrakka Bahma can be an extremely frustrating boss if you're starting the game fresh. It's really easy to assume that you should keep your distance and continue firing with your weapons, or to rush up to him and fire off Surge every opportunity you get while wondering why he's not taking damage. It doesn't help that the one attack you need him to do so he can be hurt basically requires you to take a punch in the face. And if that wasn't enough, the move you need him to do can blast you off the ledge and force you start all over again if you aren't prepared for it.

Obviously, Negate's Sphere ability can be a godsend here. It allows you to take his launching jetpack attack while leaving you in a good position to blast him with a Fury rocket or Surge him off. The lasers he fires down at the platform in his second phase will almost do enough damage to kill you.

The real way to handle him is to jump or dodge. Jumping will dodge his jetpack move as well as get you cancelled out of any damage-taking animations you might be put into by his melee attacks. It's just one of the more risky solutions. Dodging is a guaranteed success.

So Bahma is a bounty hunter hired to take Gideon in, dead or alive, by whom we can only assume are the Seekers. There's very little other info about this character, but he was obviously going to be a recurring enemy throughout the trilogy, as you can tell by his tail flicking after you defeat him

Aeon Pulse is one of the least useful powers in Advent Rising, unfortunately. All it does is fire off a ball of charged electric energy that will travel in a straight line and do about as much damage as a paper airplane would. It's intended to be your first psychic power that directly attacks enemies, but while it's nice that it somewhat homes in on enemies if you flick target them, it never becomes powerful enough or effective against even normal enemies. Although you can fire at max a total of eight blasts at the final level, a single enemy can take all of those, and it's quickly outclassed by a power we'll get next chapter.

One of its somewhat redeeming qualities is its ability to be charged. For the first four levels, it just lets you make a stronger bullet that will knock down enemies, but once you've completely upgraded it to level five, every full charge will let you unleash a gigantic beam of light that can wipe out infantry, tanks, dropships, and Shock Troops instantly. It leaves you somewhat vulnerable since it drains all your psychic energy, but if you know what's coming up, it can be incredibly useful. Surge and Aeon Pulse are the only psychic powers that can be charged.

Its alt fire is Radial Flare, which makes Gideon float up into the air and cause an explosion in a fairly wide area around him. It can be useful at times where you might be stuck behind cover and enemies are coming around to finish you off, but if you use this out around a group of Seekers (where it'd be most effective), you're likely and in fact almost guaranteed to take more damage than you would have just taking potshots while running away. It sorta works more as a spherical Surge, more useful for knocking down enemies than killing them, although in the time it takes to charge, you probably could've fired off three Surges and knocked down anything around you.

What I wish is that the designers had made Aeon Pulse more like your psychic machinegun. This game doesn't encourage wielding two powers at the same time due to psychic power constraints, so I think if they had implemented one which only took a minuscule amount with each shot and allowed you to drop a shield or toss something that it could have added an interesting dynamic to the gameplay. Plus, it would've contrasted Shatter nicely.